Monthly Archives: June 2008

Apple MobileMe: What About the Rest of Us?


My first opinion of Apple’s MobileMe was: OK, so they renamed .Mac, it has more storage, it costs the same (US$99/year), and… wait… It is what I wishes Microsoft Live would give Windows Mobile users like me.

I used to sync my WiMo smartphone daily with my PC. But, that has become such a chore and a statistical probability rather than a sure thing that I don’t do that anymore. I still sync a couple of times a week to make sure I have a backup of my current calendar and contacts. But, it is a chore. I hope the Windows Mobile and Windows Live team can get together and provide similar functionality for WiMo smartphone users soon.

The one big iPhone issue for me is still the lack of a physical keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard option. I still can’t type worth a darn on my iPod touch. So, I still can’t use it effectively use a email or data entry device.

Mobile.FlightStats.com


Air travel used to a relatively pleasant experience decades ago. It has become a darn right onerous task in recent years. I’m expecting airlines to install pay toilets on flights any day now 🙁 Airlines are merging, shutting down, reducing flights, and all kinds of other activities that make catching a flight a statistical probability rather than a given these days.

If you have a web-enabled smartphone and a data plan, this site might come in handy when you are traveling by air. Check it out…

Mobile.FlightStats.com

Back to Basics: Cameraphone Sports Mode Setting


Generally speaking, the cameras on most phones are much slower than even the slowest of the first generation consumer digital cameras back in the 1990s. So, I’ve never really expected to get much in the way of action shots with my cameraphone and ignored the so-called Sports Setting the camera configuration. However, while waiting for my daughter at her gym today, I decided to play with that setting to while the time away.

You can see one of the photos I took using the Sports Setting using my T-Mobile Dash (AKA HTC Excalibur). On this particular phone, this setting reduces the resolution to 640×480 (which makes sense) and takes three (3) photos in succession after pressing the selection button. You can adjust the number of photos it takes per squeeze in the configuration menu.

I’ve shrunken the photo from the original 640×480 to make it blog-friendly. It won’t make anyone throw away their Digital SLR. But, the result was better than I expected. I guess I should try some of the other camera phone settings too now.

O’Reilly Launches a New Site: Inside iPhone


The Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) happens in San Francisco next week. And, it will not be a surprise if all tech talk for most of the week is about the iPhone. O’Reilly Media (where I blog in addition to my personal blogs) is ready for it. It just launched a new blog site called:

Inside iPhone

I’m definitely going to be following the bloggers there to keep up with what’s going on in the iPhone world. And, I don’t even own an iPhone!

Google Maps Mobile Adds Bus and Train Directions: But Not for Windows Mobile

Google announced Google Maps for Mobile 2.2 which adds bus and train information. However, it is not available for Windows Mobile devices yet. If you try to download it on a Windows Mobile device, you will get version 2.1. The blog item announcing 2.2 says that it is available for the Blackberry and many Java-based phones.

If we Windows Mobile users feel left out now, just wait until next week when the geeksphere is abuzz over all things iPhone which will also NOT work with Windows Mobile smartphones. Sigh.